Part 1

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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE

Or how to Realize the Most Money with the Smallest Expenditure of Capital and Labor in the Care of Bees, Rationally Considered. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT MEDINA, OHIO,

BY A. I. ROOT & CO. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Vol. III March, 1875. No. 3 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ _In the Preparation of this Journal the following are the Principal Periodicals Consulted_:

=American Bee Journal.= _Clarke, and Mrs. Tupper._

=Bee-Keeper’s Magazine.= _King._

=Bee World.= _A. F. Moon & Co._

[_Also Bound Volumes of the former since 1860, and Files of all other Bee Journals that have been Published in America._]

=American Agriculturist=, =Prairie Farmer=, =Rural New Yorker=, =Country Gentleman=, =Southern Farmer=, =Scientific American=.

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CONTENTS:

_Page._ Remarks on in-door wintering 25 Our own Apiary 25 How bees behave in cold weather 27 Report from L. C. Root 27 Quinby hive 27 Why do our bees die? 27 Home made New Ideas etc. 28 Double width versus two story 28 Sawdust for contracting entrances 28 Dimensions of frames etc. 28 A Novel Idea in Wintering etc. 29 Half inch, versus double walls 29 Section Honey boxes 29, 32 Double wall hives etc. 30 Honey Column 31 Humbugs and Swindles 31 Reports Encouraging 31 Basswood: Starting a plantation 32 How to fly bees in a room 32 Is it the fault of our Queens? 33 Reports from cold frames 33 Leather for quilts 33 Strait combs 33 Adulteration of honey 33 Movable portico 34 Buzz Saws 34 Candying of honey 34 Deep frames 35 Imported Queens 36 Sunflowers 36

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_ADVERTISERS’ DEPARTMENT_

SUNDRY MATTERS.

In making Bee veils use Tarleton in place of Crown Lining as advised on page 2, Vol. 1.

* * * * *

Mrs. Axtell writes us that we made a mistake on page 10, Jan. No., when we give her credit of extracting 3000 lbs.; that it was only about one-half that amount.

* * * * *

We have just received an extra nice lot of Alsike Clover seed, new crop, raised in our own vicinity, so that we know it is pure and safe. Single pound by mail in cloth bag 45c.; by express 35c., if over 10 lbs. 30c. only.

* * * * *

We learn from J. D. Kruschke, Berlin, Wis., that there _is_ a good market for the oil from Rape, and that in fact we at present import it to supply the demand. We refer all interested in Rape culture to the little book to be had by enclosing 5c. to the above address.

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_Magazine_ reached us on the 15th, with its appearance much improved. On further consideration we have decided to keep the clubbing price with it and GLEANINGS at $1.75, and $5.00 for all the Bee Journals. If our readers will now excuse so many changes we will try to change no more.

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Mr. Doolittle, of Borodino, and L. C. Root, of Mohawk, N. Y., have each sent us a club of 20 subscribers, Prof. Cook, and several others, nearly as many. A few more such friends and we might afford to give you a larger Journal and larger type, _without_ any change in price.

* * * * *

Our thanks are due J. C. Colborne, of Chicago, for a description of the hive and frame used by Mr. Harbison. It is not a suspended frame, nor is it like Quinby’s. We should prefer getting something more definite, and from Harbison himself, if possible, before giving it to our readers. Dimensions of frame about 12×15.

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Our mailing type goes by machinery that won’t work unless 75c. be remitted once a year. Therefore look to the labels on your papers and see when your time will be out. If the paper stops coming blame the “machine” and not us; also, if the labels do not always present your account to you monthly, as it should be, drop us a postal.

* * * * *

We presume nearly every one of our readers, has already done something for the relief of the Kansas and Nebraska sufferers; to those who have not had the opportunity presented them, we would refer to Mr. James Vick’s proposal in his Floral Guide. His arrangements enable him to give a receipt for all money, and to also show how and where it has all been judiciously expended.

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Notwithstanding all that has been said about honey dealers, we have at least two men in whom we feel we can place implicit confidence; Lippincott of Pittsburg, and Muth, of Cincinnati. Mr. Muth has for many years been dealing in supplies, and we have yet to hear a single complaint of him in any shape or manner. His honey jars are very neat indeed, and what is more they will hold an honest pound, or 2 lbs., according to the stamp in the glass of each. As an instance of the magnitude of his business, we may say that he has given the manufacturers orders for 1000 gross for the coming season; customers may depend on getting goods as soon as ordered.

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My bees, 50 stocks, on their summer stands, are not doing well; weather very cold, some days below zero all day. A good deal of ice in hives, with not sufficient warm weather to thaw it and dry them out. Have lost some already, and shall lose more if the weather does not change soon.

JOHN F. TEMPLE, Ridgeway, Mich. Feb. 5th, ’75.

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The San Diego Mountain honey does not candy although exposed to a freezing temperature in an uncovered vessel. Mr. Tweed says such is their experience, and astonishing as it may seem, such proves the case with us, while all our other honey under the same conditions, is white and solid.

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GET THE BEST.

ESTABLISHED 1848. - - - - - TRY IT FOR 1875.

THE OHIO FARMER,

The Largest, Most Interesting, Enterprising and Valuable Farmer’s Family Paper Published.

THE OHIO FARMER is a 16-page, 64-column, weekly paper, devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, Live Stock, Dairy, Poultry, Apiary, News, Fireside Reading, Domestic Economy, and Choice Miscellany, with the largest and ablest corps of Regular Contributors ever employed on an agricultural paper in this country, under an able and experienced Editorial Management who spare no expense to add everything possible to its value.

READ THE TERMS.

Single Subscriptions, 52 issues, postage paid $2.15 In clubs of 10 or over, postage paid 1.90

We want good Agents everywhere, and offer very liberal pay to all who work for us.

☞ Send for Specimen Copies, free. 2m Address =OHIO FARMER, Cleveland, O.=

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HONEY PLANTS!

We keep the following seeds of Honey plants for sale: Rape, 35c. per lb., post paid. Rapp, 45c. per lb. Esparcet, 60c. per lb. Linden Seeds 15c. per oz. Send stamp for Pamphlet on their culture.

tfd KRUSCHKE BROS., Berlin, Wis.

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ITALIAN BEES.

For one Colony of Italian Bees $15.00; four for $50.00. Also tested Italian Queens, Hives and material for Hives and surplus boxes at _very low figures_. Price list free. J. S. WOODBURN,

2t$2 Dickinson, Cumberland Co., Pa.

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SEEDS FOR HONEY PLANTS.

Catnip seed, fresh and pure at 40 cts. per ounce postage paid. Also Summer Rape, Mignonette, Borage and other Honey producing plant seeds.

2 3d B. H. STAIR & CO., Cleveland, Ohio.

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=Thirteen years experience= in propagating Italian Bees. Queens will be bred direct from Imported Mothers and warranted pure and fertile. Send for my circular. Wm. W. CARY,

1tf Colerain, Franklin Co., Mass.

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You cannot look over the back No’s of GLEANINGS or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said—“Dear me what a bother—I _must_ have last month’s Journal and it’s no where to be found.” Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes and you can sit down happy, any time you wish to find any thing you may have previously seen even though it were months ago.

Binders for GLEANINGS (will hold them for four years) gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 75c, according to quality. For table of prices of Binders for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. 2. Send in your orders.

A. I. ROOT & CO., Medina, O.

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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE.

DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEES AND HONEY ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Vol. III. MARCH, 1, 1875. No. III. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

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REMARKS ON IN-DOOR WINTERING.

BY JAMES BOLIN.

Friend Novice:—While I freely endorse the most that is contained in the article on, How to Conduct an Apiary, in the Dec. No. of GLEANINGS, I will have to dissent from a few of your conclusions, even at the risk of being accused of _heresy_ again.

For instance: that the position that keeping bees warm etc., will save them, will have to be given up, and, since our wintering troubles, **** nothing that has been done has amounted to a row of pins, [Beg pardon, we meant toward curing sick ones.—Ed.] except fine weather etc. Now the above may be true in the case of your bees, but I cannot think it will apply to many. I have pretty strong evidence that keeping my bees warm and quiet, _did_ save them, as most of those in this neighborhood that were not wintered in warm depositories have perished with the bee disease, during the last two or three winters. Keeping mine warm has, in my opinion, amounted to a pretty long row of pins—a longer one in fact than any one would need, unless they wished to start a notion store, and even then they might be overstocked.

I do not think that I have ever claimed that cold was the _only_ but merely the _main_ cause of the losses that have occurred. The want of dryness and darkness in the winter depository has no doubt had considerable to do, in some instances, with the loss of bees that were housed, while disturbance, caused by taking a light in the room, looking at the bees, admitting strong currents of air, by opening the door at night, and introducing artificial heat has no doubt killed more bees than anything else, except cold. A prominent bee-keeper remarked last spring, that he regarded artificial heat as being indispensable in wintering bees; right in the face of the fact that he had lost about eight-ninths of his bees by its use, or at least, while using it. Rather a poor argument in its favor, I think. But I may be too practical in my views. Bees are very sensitive, and a slight jar, taking a light into the room etc., will often excite them to an injurious activity. I have frequently seen the advice given to open the door of the winter depository at night to cool and purify the air, but if the ventilators are arranged as they should be, I would much rather depend on them and keep the door shut.

You remark on page 139 of Dec. GLEANINGS, that opening the door and windows of your cellar only seemed to make the bees warmer. It no doubt had just that effect, as the bees were stirred up by feeling a current of air different from that in the room, [but what _should_ we have done?—Ed.] and strong stocks, when disturbed, generate an immense amount of heat. I had a pretty fair sample of what they can do in that line two years ago when I put my bees in the house. We had a cold south-west wind at the time. The thermometer stood at about zero in the open air, and at 34° in the house when I began carrying the bees in. By having the door open it sunk to 20° in the house, by the time I had them in. I put in 88 swarms,—then shut the door for two hours,—when I went in again and they had run the thermometer up to 45°, being 11° higher than it was before the door was opened to put them in. It remained about the same all the time out of doors. By letting them alone, they soon became quiet and the temperature of the room fell to about 40°. Keeping bees _too warm_ will excite them, and will have the same effect as keeping them too cold, cause them to fill themselves with honey, and if the excitement is kept up long, the result will be the same—they will be effected with the dysentery.

The thermometer in my bee house stands at 42° at this date, Dec. 14th, 1874, and a person on entering the room would almost think there was not a live bee in it, they are so still.

That the Editor, and all his readers, may succeed in carrying all their bees safely through the present, and all subsequent winters, is the wish of JAMES BOLIN.

West Lodi, Ohio.

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OUR OWN APIARY.

We mentioned last month that we gave the bees in the forcing house a brisk fly on the 17th, to accomplish this more effectually we removed the covers to all the hives, and this was one reason why only _four_ bees remained on the sash. They saw their comrades just beneath them and of course “hopped down” among them. To avoid giving any erroneous impression we may remark that we spend the greater part of our Sundays with our books and papers in the forcing house, and on sunny days even the rest of the family find it an agreeable sitting room. Of course we do not mean to work with our bees on the Sabbath and should be very sorry to have any of our readers get such an opinion of us, yet it must be admitted that it so came about, that the _bees_ instead of being allowed to rest on the Sabbath, rested _six_ days, and on the seventh were expected to turn out and have a fly if nothing else. If they would not otherwise, we uncovered the hives etc., as above. Very likely friend Bolin will expect this treatment to kill them whether or no. Never mind; they would probably submit with resignation if they knew it was solely in the cause of science. On the 23rd, we warmed the house in the afternoon and made search in nearly all the hives for eggs, but none could be found. We were anxious to report brood in Jan., in our Feb. No., and so kept the room at a favorable temperature all day the 24th, and next day were delighted to find that the Queens had laid profusely, even to the lamp nursery which contained less than 100 bees with the Queen at this time. By the way we can see no difficulty in wintering any number of Queens with a tea-cupful of bees each, in this way. Our last form was to be printed on the 27th, and to get larvæ before this time required careful work, so we kept the room warm until the last item was set up, but “not a larvæ” could we see, and we dolefully sent you your papers with hardly a parting note in regard to our experiment. On the 28th we looked again and were cheered with the sight of whole patches of larvæ, so large it seemed we must have been hasty the day before. And now for pollen. Few of the colonies had any at all, some of them positively none, and the worst of it was the bees would take no notice of the spot where they had worked so industriously on it in Dec. They seemed to take their flights close under the glass. On the 31st we were rejoiced to see the sun come out full and clear, and by 10 o’clock the room was abundantly warm without any aid from the stove, but not a bit would they notice the meal. We had read in the _Fruit Recorder_ that plants, especially strawberries, must be placed _close up to the glass_ to thrive. Was it not so with bees? In a twinkling the Simplicity hive cover containing the heap of meal was suspended from the sash within about a foot of the glass. Our better half here interposed that it was long past church time and we bent our steps churchward with about as much alacrity as did we when in the woods with the wild Touch-me-nots. We were late, and what is more were rebuked by having the minister pause in his discourse until we could get seated. Never mind we deserved it and will try and do better next time. May our path through life never lead, where the influence of such as he is unknown.

Do you wonder that we were in a mood to rejoice more fully, with the bees, when we found them happy as in June, dancing about our heap of meal, and now and then scampering into their hive as fast as their padded legs could carry them. Yet this was a cold wintry day outside, and the sun scarcely thawed the snow on the south roofs of the houses.

We should have said before, that our second sash were put in place about the middle of Jan. It has not yet been closed up warm and secure by any means, but it does excellent service in keeping the ice from the glass and preventing the attendant drip.

_Feb. 1st_—To-day we had sunshine again, and brood rearing is going on beautifully. The only drawback is the drunken bees that blunder about and finally fall on the floor; these we gather up in the evening and put in the lamp nursery where they revive and at least a part of them go through the same programme next day. Not all, however, for the lamp nursery is getting built up thereby. We forgot to mention that one colony was found Queenless; search showed her dead in bottom of hive. As she looked natural and perfect, and as the bees were healthy, we cannot think it any fault of our own that we now have 67 colonies instead of 68.

[The following is from A. I. Root personally.]

_Feb. 8th_—I hope and trust that I have many warm friends among our readers, many who have followed my efforts, in years past, and very likely who feel that they know my weak points almost as well as those who have held daily converse with me, face to face. If I have gained any hold upon you, and if you have any confidence in my truth and candor, please listen, and do not turn away, even if I talk a little to you on these pages, on something, that does not _directly_ pertain to Bee Culture.

For a little time back a great light has been breaking above me. This light might have come sooner had it not been for several things which stood in its way; prominently among them, a vain pride and ambition in regard to this very GLEANINGS. I worshipped worldly things first, and my Maker, (when I worshipped Him at all) afterwards. In fact when this great light commenced to reveal itself, I debated whether it was best to mention the matter at all, here; whether it would be—well, _profitable_. When these thoughts arose, the old darkness threatened to come back, until I could truly say, “I will do my Creator’s work first _whatever_ it may be, and bees and all else afterwards.” Dear readers do you know that this is one of the first tasks shown to me, to use my influence whatever weight it may have, in all possible directions, to induce imperfect mankind to say with me _Thy will_ our Heavenly Father, not ours be done.

Do you say you have no duties that you are aware of, left unperformed? just as I did a very few days ago? Go read your Bible, read the commandments and see. When you have tried to live up to these, when you have tried to love your neighbor _as yourself_, and find you _cannot_ do it alone, admit your helplessness and call on your Heavenly Father for aid, but first be sure you can freely give up all or _everything_ in this world for His sake, and forgive all your fellow beings, as you hope to be forgiven. With a sincere prayer that God will enable these few words to reach you just as they were intended, I still remain _more than ever_ your old friend A. I. Root.

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_Feb. 12th_—Reports come in from all sides in regard to the extreme severity of the weather, and brood rearing in the forcing house is again suspended on account of the thick coat of ice that covers the sash and prevents even the noonday sun from penetrating and warming it up. Instead of feeling like being dissatisfied with such weather ought we not rather to take it as a lesson that our climate is uncertain, and that we should in building our wintering houses, cellars etc., make proper calculation for such extremes.